Delusions of Adequacy

The other day, my good ultraliberal friend Sal said something in e-mail about Bush's service records, and how they've been released in fits and starts, rather than all at once. Today there's this from WaPo's Dana Milbanks (registration required). A couple of pertinent pull-quotes:

The White House is no longer saying the "entire file" has been released. In fact, the search for Bush's Guard documents continues -- and is being directed by a three-star general, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. White House communications director Dan Bartlett, who has coordinated the administration's statements on the issue, says: "My understanding is there is a constant review spearheaded by the FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] office at the Pentagon to ensure all documents are located."

What Bush did, which Kerry has not done, was sign release permission for his records that allowed anyone to request his records from the Pentagon. The problem is that those records are thirty years old, and buried in bankers' boxes. They've got people searching for them -- generals, even -- and as they're found, they're released. (Unless White House communications director Dan Bartlett sits on them, which he emphatically should not.)

NB that if Kerry had allowed release of his own records under the same FOIA mechanism, we would probably be seeing much the same thing, with flurries of documents being released piecemeal.